Coram Deo ~

Looking at contemporary culture from a Christian worldview

Category Archives: Faith and Work

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24


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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • Called to Lead. My book Called to Lead: Living and Leading for Jesus in the Workplace is available in both a paperback and Kindle edition. Read a free sample (Introduction through Chapter 2).
  • What Can We Learn from the Repair Shop? Russ Gehrlein writes “I pray that you will see the work of restoration that is done by others (or yourself) in a new light. My desire is that ordinary Christian workers experience God’s presence at work every day and that they remember that their work matters for eternity.”
  • A Leader Worth Following. My new book A Leader Work Following: 40 Key Leadership Attributes and Applications to Masteris available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. Read a sample of the book (found under the book cover in the above link).
  • Hints of Hope: A Conversation with Steve Garber. On this episode of the Faith & Work podcast, enjoy this conversation with Dr. Steve Garber as he explores the profound connection between story, vocation, and faith, using Tolkien’s hobbits and biblical narratives to illustrate how understanding our meta-narrative shapes our life’s purpose and resolve.

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  • More links to interesting articles
  • The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
  • Faith, Work and Leadership Book Review – The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do (4th Edition Revised and Expanded) by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller
  • Quotes from the book Working for Better: A New Approach to Faith at Workby Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels

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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • Young Men, Don’t Let AI Steal Your Work Ethic. Seth Troutt writes “How might we disciple young men to embrace their identity as workers at a time when the future of work feels so up in the air?”
  • A Leader Worth Following. My new book A Leader Work Following: 40 Key Leadership Attributes and Applications to Masteris available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. Read a sample of the book (found under the book cover in the above link).
  • Help! My Coworkers Claim to Be Christians but Don’t Act Like It. Miranda Carls responds to the question “I work as an administrative assistant in a public school system. This has been challenging and often discouraging, but I’ve also been able to share my faith with non-Christian colleagues. My bigger challenge is actually fellow Christian colleagues, some of whom are so liberal I’m not sure what parts of the Bible they believe. Do you have any advice on how to share Christ with people who think they’re already walking with him?”

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  • The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
  • Faith and Work Book Review ~ How to Get a Return on Failure: Fail Smarter—Return Stronger by John Maxwell
  • Quotes from the book Working for Better: A New Approach to Faith at Work by Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels

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Values-Driven Leadership: A Better Way to Lead

In his excellent book Lead Like It Matters to God: Values-Driven Leadership in a Success-Driven World, a book I feel should be required reading for Christian leaders, former World Vision President Richard Stearns writes that he believes that God is far more concerned about how a leader leads than he is about the success that leader delivers. The book is about why he believes the values Christian leaders embrace are more important than the success they achieve. He tells us that while our culture rewards success, God’s bottom line is faithfulness.
In the book, Stearns writes about seventeen values and leadership qualities that he believes are essential for a Christian leader to embody: surrender, sacrifice, trust, love, excellence, humility, integrity, vision, courage, generosity, perseverance, forgiveness, self-awareness, balance, humor, encouragement, and listening.
He believes that leaders who embrace these characteristics will lift not only their own performance but also the performance of their teams. Stearns writes with authority, having been a successful CEO at Parker Brothers and then Lenox, before being called to World Vision. Continue reading →


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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

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  • The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
  • Faith and Work Book Review ~ The Clay Pot Conspiracy: God’s Plan to Use Weakness in Leaders by Dave Harvey
  • Quotes from the book Working for Better: A New Approach to Faith at Workby Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels

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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • In Working for Christ, There Are No Dead-End Jobs. Alistair Begg writes “Whenever you find Christians who don’t give their best to their work, you have found Christians who have forgotten who they’re working for.”
  • Lisa Slayton: Wisdom for a World in Flux. “Life under the sun has always been a life in flux. And yet, in our world today, we are experiencing change at a dizzying pace. On top of that- our awareness of the brokenness in the world feels limitless. But our limitations as humans remain. More than ever we must slow down and discern ever-more-clearly, the voice of God calling us to our particular places, causes and communities- and the work that is ours to do, today. On this episode of the Wisdom Series, on Faith, Work & Rest, Lisa Slayton offers rich wisdom from her many years accompanying leaders to do just that.”
  • Called to Lead. My book Called to Lead: Living and Leading for Jesus in the Workplace is available in both a paperback and Kindle edition. Read a free sample (Introduction through Chapter 2).

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  • More links to interesting articles
  • The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
  • Faith and Work Book Review ~ Church Planting Is for Wimps: How God Uses Messed-Up People to Plant Ordinary Churches That Do Extraordinary Things by Mike McKinley
  • Quotes from the book Working for Better: A New Approach to Faith at Workby Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels

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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • Christian Work Ethic: Busy for Christ. In this video, Dr. Joel Beeke sits down with Costi Hinn to talk about how Christians should be set apart by their work ethic and how one should wisely steward their time for the glory of God.
  • A Leader Worth Following. My new book A Leader Work Following: 40 Key Leadership Attributes and Applications to Masteris available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. Read a sample of the book (found under the book cover in the above link).
  • 4 Axioms from Spurgeon’s Leadership. J.A. Medders writes “If we boil down his profound insights on leadership, we can create four simple axioms or truisms that apply to church planting and all of pastoral ministry.”

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  • The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
  • Faith and Work Book Review~ Hints of Hope: Essays on Making Peace with the Proximate by Steven Garber
  • Quotes from the book Working for Better: A New Approach to Faith at Workby Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels

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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • A Good Tired. Daniel Darling writes “There is a difference between a frustrated “sick of this mess” type of fatigue and what my dad used to call “A good tired”.
  • Called to Lead. My book Called to Lead: Living and Leading for Jesus in the Workplace is available in both a paperback and Kindle edition. Read a free sample (Introduction through Chapter 2).
  • Does Every Person Have a Calling? Gene Veith writes “We usually think of vocation and calling in terms of a job or profession, but it means much more than that.”
  • Does God Have One Perfect Job for You? Megan Taylor writes “While it is true that God knows our career path from entry to retirement, the idea that there is a “perfect job” out there for you may stem from a faulty understanding of God’s will in relation to your calling.”

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  • The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
  • Faith and Work Book Review ~ Beyond Basketball: Coach K’s Keywords for Success by Mike Krzyzewski with Jamie Spotola
  • Quotes from the book Working for Better: A New Approach to Faith at Work by Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels

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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • Finding a Job That Fits. Are you in the right job? On this episode of Renewing Your Mind, R.C. Sproul gives practical guidance to help us seek a vocation where our gifts align with the motivation necessary to succeed.
  • The Multitasking Myth. Reagan Rose writes “What I’ve found is that disciplining myself to finish one task before moving to the next isn’t just more effective. It’s actually more fulfilling.”
  • Christlike Work in a Burnout Society. Kyle Tucker writes “In the malaise of modern work, God offers us a hopeful alternative. First Thessalonians 4:9–12presents a theology of work rooted in divine love, quiet ambition, and missional living.
  • Three Myths About Aging In the Third Third of Life. Amy Hanson writes “I have found that the third third of life tends to be viewed the most negatively in culture. We are conditioned at a young age to see aging as a bad thing and something to avoid.”

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  • The Top 10 Faith and Work Quotes of the Week
  • Work and Leadership Book Review ~ The Gold Standard: Building a World-Class Team by Mike Krzyzewski with Jamie K. Spatola
  • Quotes from the book Working for Better: A New Approach to Faith at Work by Elaine Howard Ecklund and Denise Daniels

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FAITH AND WORK: Connecting Sunday to Monday

Faith and Work News ~ Links to Interesting Articles

  • Biblical Love and What it Looks Like at Work. Joshua Nangle writes “This is the second article in a serieson applying the fruit of the Spirit in the workplace, and our topic today is the relationship between love (the first characteristic mentioned in the fruit of the Spirit) and work.”
  • A Leader Worth Following. My new book A Leader Work Following: 40 Key Leadership Attributes and Applications to Masteris available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions. Read a sample of the book (found under the book cover in the above link).
  • Who Are You Without Your Job? On this episode of the Faith and Work podcast, Ross Chapman and Brian Gray explore the complex relationship between identity and work from a Christian perspective.

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Reflecting on 30 Years as a Church Elder

Thirty years ago, in March of 1996, after being elected by our congregation, I was ordained as an elder in the church my wife Tammy and I still attend. I was pleased to have my parents present at my ordination service, not knowing that my Mom would go to glory just four months later.
Our denomination has a Book of Church Order (BCO), which is part of the constitution of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), and is subject to and subordinate to the Bible. The BCO states that within the class of elder are teaching elders and ruling elders. The elders jointly have the government and spiritual oversight of the Church, including teaching. Only those elders who are specially gifted, called and trained by God to preach may serve as teaching elders, or pastors. I serve the church as a ruling elder. Continue reading →